


Telltale Heart

by tamanegichipolla (ImJustNutty)



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Alexei's a dick, F/M, Manipulation, Mentions of Suicide Attempts, suicidal character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImJustNutty/pseuds/tamanegichipolla
Summary: Written for the Tales of Big Bang 2k16. Hospital AU. Cardiology researcher Rita doesn't do clinical cases anymore, but gets pulled into an intriguing case involving a suicidal veteran with a bizarre mechanical heart, a shocking remnant of the days of human experimentation. It'll be a lot easier to treat Raven if only he actually wanted to be treated.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Raven/Rita?! Am I insane? Well, maybe. I always did lowkey ship this. In this fic, Rita's 20 and Raven's 40, so everyone's totally legal.  
> Hospital AU because I'm studying...stuff in the medical field, and they always say to Write What You Know.  
> This is supposed to be part of the Tales of Big Bang, but I never did get an artist assigned and I never got assigned to draw for anyone's fic. I was going to leave this half baked fic in my folder, but I don't like leaving half-written fics alone.  
> So here you go, fellow rarepair shipper.

Rita peered morosely into her empty coffee mug. Shame, she thought, but she wanted to complete the preparation of the cardiac muscle specimens before sunrise.

And then the phone rang.

She glared at it, but after two rings the sound irritated her enough for her to snatch it up. “What?” she growled.

“Rita? It’s Estelle. I’m sorry but I really need you to get over here right now.”

 

 

The Zaphias University was right next to the affiliated Zaphias University Hospital. Both were newly renovated facilities, funded by the recently formed democratic government after the overthrowing of the previous monarchy. Rita didn’t care for politics, but the university had been glad to take her on as a post-graduate student despite having been mostly self-taught due to her invaluable aid to the revolution. Being paid to research on what she loved? Hell yes, she would take it.

“I’m so sorry to have called you in on such short notice,” said Estelle for about the thousandth time since she met Rita at the door of the Accident and Emergency department. “This is beyond the scope of any of the doctors here.”

“Even you?” asked Rita, raising an eyebrow. “Something managed to confound the brilliant Dr. Heurassein?”

Estelle couldn’t even be bothered to object to that, if she had even noticed Rita’s teasing. “It involves an …artificial heart.”

Rita nearly tripped. “What, are we talking a cloned cross-species transplant or something?’

Estelle shook her head. She all but shoved Rita into the decontamination room and stuffed her into a surgical gown, mask and cap. Rita hadn’t come to the hospital often due to her preference for experimental study rather than field work, and in her excitement to see this new specimen she stumbled into the operating theatre before pulling her mask over her face.

That was a mistake.

The smell of burnt flesh filled the room, and in the kidney tray on the metal trolley beside the operating theatre she saw bloodied chunks of charred flesh. Yanking on her mask securely, she approached the table slowly. The man lying on the table was unconscious, she assumed. She hardly noticed his dark skin marred with scars on the arms and chest. Her eyes were fixed on the glowing stone in his chest, where the dim light throbbed slowly and silently. She reached forward to touch it.

“Hey, who let her—“

“Apologies, Dr. Maxwell but this is Dr. Mordio, from the department of cardiology. She specialises in transplants and robotics…”

Rita rubbed away a smudge of black from across the top of the glowing gem, before realising the skin was removed along a line across the man’s chest. “What happened?”

“Electrocuted himself in the bathtub with a hairdryer. We would have tried to resuscitate him via normal means but…” The doctor trailed off.

“He appears to be almost back to normal, but for the burned epidermal layer. But we’ve never seen…anything like this before. Is it safe, where did it come from, should we get rid of it, is it really his heart?” Estelle listed down the questions, shaking her head as she looked down at the glowing piece in wonder.

“The best option would obviously be to cut him up,” said Rita, turning to the trolley to see if there was a scalpel handy, but Estelle gasped and grabbed her hand.

“No, Rita. We can’t do that without his permission!”

Rita snorted. “He obviously tried to kill himself, he probably wouldn’t mind if we cut him up. If he died, we’d be doing _him_ a favour,” she said, jerking her head towards him.

One of the doctors—Rita had no idea who was who, under all those masks and surgical caps—sighed. “Even if we wanted to, any remaining family or anyone else in the public would sue us for malpractice if we did. Since you can’t offer any help, we’ll just ward him and keep him under observation.”

Another doctor sighed, peeling off his gloves. “Put him on the seventh floor, in a private room. Get the psychiatric ward to lend us one of their beds with restraints.”

Estelle’s head turned sharply. “We’re treating him like a criminal?”

“We’re just being careful,” he replied, bluntly.

 

 

“And he was just being an asshole,” snapped Rita, slurping on her third iced coffee since that morning. “They should treat you better.”

“Rita, I’m just a junior doctor compared to the rest of them,” replied Estelle with all her usual grace and calm. “Besides, doing the night shift is hard work. Dr. Taylor was probably just really tired.” As if on cue Estelle yawned, daintily covering her mouth.

Rita rolled her eyes. “I haven’t slept in 36 hours.”

“And that’s why you’re everyone’s favourite ball of sunshine,” sang an annoyingly cheery male voice from behind her. Rita sat up and turned to glare at the offending owner of that voice, but relaxed when cinnamon rolls were set in front of them. “Three glasses of iced coffee, one glass iced tea, and four cinnamon rolls. Is there anything else, Princess?”

Estelle nearly flushed red as a tomato. Currently she was only slightly pink, as though she’d imbibed a glass too much alcohol, which was a minor improvement. “N-no, th-that’s all, Yuri. Uh.”

“She means thanks,” said Rita, flatly. She slid money across the table towards him. “Now go away.”

Yuri sighed heavily as he scooped up the money. “And a nice day to you too, Dr. Mordio. It’s such an honour to have you grace my humble food joint in this hospital.”

He left to return to the kitchen, and Estelle dropped her head onto the table, forehead hitting the surface with an audible _thwack_. “He’s so cool.”

Rita picked up a cinnamon roll. She found Yuri Lowell a tad annoying, but she wasn’t going to deny that he made a mean cinnamon roll. He also made mean cookies, cakes and savoury pastries.

Okay, so maybe he was a good cook.

“I’d argue that you’re too good for him, but we’ve been through that. Maybe you should ask him out.”

“Nooooooo…” Estelle peeked up from over her glass. Now her face was as red as a tomato.

“For all your brains and becoming Zaphias’ youngest doctor, you sure don’t have much in the realm of courage.”

“The two are completely unrelated skill sets,” muttered Estelle. She started munching on a cinnamon roll. “So, are you going to go back to your lab?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to go see that patient. Something’s fishy about that artificial heart. For starters, that thing looks frankly dangerous yet more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen in the market. Which means it’s probably illegal.” Rita wiped her fingers on a napkin. “Even so, I know everything that’s in the black market as well. I probably invented half of them. That thing though? Looked like something that I would make if I was trying to make a bomb.”

Estelle pursed her lips. “I’ll pull some strings to make sure you’re listed on the official medical team.”

“What, using your status?” teased Rita.

“No, shut up.” Estelle frowned, then looked down to stare at the table. “Well. Maybe.”

“Princess of the old monarchy, loved by the people for her philanthropic works. Possibly the only member of royalty who holds any respect in the eyes of the public.” Rita grinned. “I picked the right person to befriend.”

“Ioder’s still respected,” muttered Estelle. Lowering her voice and peering to the side. “There’s something you should know. The patient? He’s definitely someone important.”

“Huh?”

“His landlady was the one who called in emergency. Said his name is Raven. No last name, no identification. Apparently they live in the area that used to be the Lower Quarter. I mean, they’re good people, but some of the places are a little shady. The landlady literally knows nothing about him except his name, and that he pays rent in cash.”

“…are you worried he can’t pay for treatment?” Rita’s eyes widened. “That’s it. He’s probably an illegal experiment, signed up for some trial for the money, that’s why he’s got that piece of crap in his chest.”

“Shhh!” Estelle looked around, but no one seemed to pay them any mind. “No, Rita. He’s literally a ghost. You saw those scars? He looked like one of the many patients I’ve seen who were veterans in the Great War.”

“What, not just the recent revolution?”

“Definitely not. The revolution was too recent. Those were really old scars. Veterans don’t just disappear from the world. Most of them were treated as heroes. The only ones who disappear are those in Special Forces, but they’re often given new identities.”

“Maybe he died. Ghosts don’t have identities either,” said Rita with a smirk. Estelle didn’t return the smile.

“I’m honestly pretty worried that you’re right.”

 

 

Rita tried to walk down the corridor of the ward looking like she belonged there. She probably would have blended in just fine with her white lab coat if not for the huge toolbox in her hand. She attracted a few odd stares, so she quickened her pace. Seeing the door number that Estelle had told her, she tapped her keycard for access, darted in and almost didn’t slam the door shut.

She heaved a sigh of relief.

Estelle hadn’t logged in her access yet, so she’d borrowed (read: stolen) Estelle’s access card to the confinement room that the specimen (Patient. She was supposed to be using her medical degree, so she would have to use the appropriate terminology. Patient.) was kept in. (was assigned? Rested in? Whatever.)

She edged over to the patient’s bedside and put the toolbox on the side table. As protocol mandated for such special case patients he had been restrained with large belts across his chest and legs. The heart rate monitor had normal readings, remarkable considering the extent of his injury. Rita shook her head. Electrocution was never a nice way to go. Resulted in a mess. It also hurt quite a lot, before death set in. It should have done this patient in, but his heart was clearly more resistant.

She opened the toolbox and took out a screwdriver. It would be difficult to remove his shirt with the belts, and so she undid the ones across his torso first. She unbuttoned the shirt of the patient, seeing the faint red glow from under the thin cloth. Laying out the shirt, she observed the heart. The light was brighter now. Peering closely, she could see mechanical valves and chambers, with blood moving through them. Pressing a hand to it, she felt it warm and beating.

And yet, somehow, cold and unforgiving in other ways.

She lowered her head to press her ear to it, trying to listen for gears and other mechanical sounds, when he spoke.

“Usually I take my ladies out for dinner before they do this.”

Rita lurched back, nearly falling out of her chair. “Ah!” she squeaked. The man looked at her with his bright eyes. She clutched at her chest, threatening to beat its way out of her from the adrenaline rush. She stared back at him, looking for signs of anger or fear. If it was fear, that would have been more worrying. She didn’t want to be thrown out of the university.

But instead it was a soft gaze on her, with a slight smile.

“Um. Sorry. I…hadn’t noticed you were awake.” She stood up, brushing imaginary dust off her coat. “I’m Rita Mordio. Dr. Mordio. I’m one of your, uh, doctors.”

“Raven. Pleased ta make yer acquaintance. Do doctors work with toolboxes?” he asked, looking pointedly at the bright yellow box next to him. As he turned, Rita couldn’t help but notice his strong jawline, covered with stubble but somehow…attractive in its own rugged way.

“Uh. Well.” She frowned. “I finished my medical degree years ago, and now I’m working on my PhD in the university. But,” she flashed her tag. “I assure you I’m totally qualified to be treating you anyway.”

“Ya seem really young.” His voice was soft and tired. She was surprised he could even still talk.

“Excuse you, I’m twenty years old.” She glared at him. She was supposed to be the one asking the questions.  “So, what’s the deal with that thing in your chest?”

“Huh?”

“You heard me. You’ve got that to thank for you being alive and kicking right now.”

At that, Raven’s face darkened, and he sank back into the pillows. “Aren’t doctors supposed to be all, I dunno, sympathetic and crap?”

“Yeah well, I passed for my brains, not my bedside manners. I need to take a look at that thing. I know literally everything about mechanical organs, and I’ve never seen that. Plus, it’s honestly quite crude, and doesn’t look safe. I need to fix it.” She stepped towards him, ready to pry the cover plate off. To her surprise, Raven frowned and put a hand over his heart.

“No.”

Rita contemplated tying his hands down, but that would require her calling in an orderly from outside. “Why not?” she asked, frustration clear in her voice.

“I just want to be left alone. Ya can pry it out of my cold dead chest, and then examine it to yer heart’s content.” He cracked a wry and humourless smile. “Pun unintended.”

Rita froze. That degree of tired resignation was painfully genuine. Even she felt a pang of sympathy, followed by her usual rage.

“No. How can you just give up like that? Life isn’t worth ditching like that.” She gestured wildly to his chest. “You have a second chance at life. That _thing_ is testament to it. If I could understand it, it could save thousands of lives.”

Raven shook his head. “It didn’t save mine.” He buttoned up his shirt and closed his eyes. “I would like to rest now, _Dr._ Mordio.”

Rita stood there, dumbfounded and still tightly clutching her screwdriver. After a few moments she relaxed, and shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Fine,” she muttered. She roughly threw her screwdriver into the toolbox and shut it. As she turned to leave, Raven spoke, eyes still closed.

“Oh yeah, mind strapping this belt over me again? Wouldn’t want them thinkin’ I was trying to escape, or that a certain doctor with terrible bedside manners was sneaking around me.”

 

 

Rita returned to her lab and conducted a quick search of the most recent journal articles published on mechanical implants. She rubbed her eyes after skimming through the fifteenth paper. She slammed her fists on the table in frustration, causing two terrified interns to flinch. Their sudden movement caught her eye.

“Oh, are you two still here?” She forced herself to smile, but they only looked more terrified.  “Are you two doing anything important? It can wait. Listen, I need you to search up all the medical journals on heart implants. Use all the available databases Zaphias U has subscriptions to…”

After she’d sent them to their desks, she left the lab and finally went home. She threw herself onto her bed, and only managed to dream about flicking red lights that felt warm, and a tired voice accompanied with blue-green eyes.

She woke up to the elements song blaring from her phone somewhere in her apartment. She dragged her arm heavily across the side table and only succeeded in bulldozing her goggles, non-functioning clock, and several other unidentifiable objects onto the ground. None of which were her phone.

“Uuuuuuuuughhhh,” she moaned as she slid out from under the covers and over to where she’d thrown her labcoat on the floor, rifling through its multiple pockets to find her furiously vibrating phone. She furiously mashed the answer key just as the song reached the eighth period of the table.

“Rita! Guess what! I’ve been assigned as head doctor of Raven’s case!”

Rita blinked blearily at the clock on her wall. It was five pm. “Who? Oh. The specimen.”

“Patient!”

“Not a virtue of mine.”

Estelle ignored that. “So that means you’re free to come check on him whenever you want. They say it’s because I’m the only one who seems to care about this at all.”

Rita sighed. “You do realise it’s because he’s suspicious, and if the government does any checks and things muck up you’ll be the one to take the fall, right?”

Estelle was quiet for a while. “I know,” she said, softly. “But, with you on this case, I’m pretty sure this will yield more valuable results for the medical field as a whole.”

Rita pinched the bridge of her nose, and resisted the urge to sigh again. “Might as well get this show on the road, then.”

 

 

Rita chose an apartment on-campus because she liked being able to get to the lab in five minutes. Checking her phone, she realised the interns had sent her a nicely compiled document summarising all their findings. Impressive work in seven hours. She didn’t think she scared them that much.

By the time she reached the cardiology ward she’d scrolled through the document. Assuming their work was accurate, there was nothing ever recorded that exactly resembled what their mystery Raven guy had in his chest.

“It’s definitely a hack job. I’ve got no predecessors to work by, just from looking at it. He won’t let me open it, and so I’m going to have to run tests.” Rita didn’t even bother with a greeting or slow her pace as she saw Estelle. Marching over to the lift with Estelle struggling to keep up, she continued. “I’m going to need a wheelchair at all times. And, don’t bother with the restraints, they’ll only get in my way.”

Estelle quickly cut in as Rita paused to catch her breath. “He’s at high suicide risk. I think it’ll be better if we keep them.”

The elevator reached the seventh floor. “Fine,” said Rita, who was definitely not sulking. “I need bookings with the gymnasium for at least an hour every day. I want his diet recorded, blood tests, urine tests, whatever you can get your hands on.”

Estelle smiled. “Gotcha.” Rita’s enthusiasm and determination to learn meant she was blind to all things, including her tone of voice to a supposed superior at work. Yet it was this drive that meant Rita got the job done, efficiently and effectively. She would never intentionally hurt her friends, and so Estelle would take no offence from this.

They reached Raven’s room door. Rita slid Estelle’s card out of her pocket, tapped it, and wordlessly handed it to Estelle. Estelle took it and returned it to where it belonged, and opened the door.

“Good evening, Mr Raven,” greeted Estelle cheerfully.

Raven turned his head and flashed a disarmingly charming smile. “Good evening to you too, doctor. Such a beautiful sight for sore eyes.” He noticed Rita then, who frowned hard enough that her facial muscles were starting to hurt. “And ah, my favourite young prodigy. I’ve missed you.”

Estelle smoothly swept across the room to the window. “Would you like me to draw the window blinds so the sun won’t be too bright tomorrow?”

“No, it’s fine. I’d like to sleep in.” Raven smiled. Rita had never seen anyone who managed to look charming while tied down in a hospital bed.

“Alright then,” Estelle replied, with a gentle smile of her own. “I see you’ve met Dr Mordio here. She’ll be running some tests on you to see if she can stabilise your heart condition.”

“Stabilise? It’s working fine. Which is the exact problem I’m having,” he said, smile straining.

“Well, it’s clearly illegal, and so I’m going to run tests on it. Can’t have you running about with something like that in your chest. You could one day explode and take out a whole crowd with you,” said Rita, curtly. Estelle shot her a glare.

“What she _means_ is that you’ll be kept for psychological evaluation, but also as our resident heart expert she feels that she could help you with your, ah, condition,” said Estelle, once again displaying diplomacy at its finest.

“I’m a lab rat, is what you mean,” said Raven, shaking his head. “Well, do whatever you want.”

“Really? Whatever I want? Because I really want to cut that open—“ started Rita.

“Except that. Run whatever tests you want, but don’t cut me open,” he said, looking straight at her. His eyes were sad and filled with pain, and Rita felt almost bad for having been so presumptuous.

“But why? That’s the best way for me to obtain all the data—“

“I’m scared of being cut up,” he said brightly, with a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.

Rita took a moment. “Right,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“Alright, I’ll keep that in your record,” said Estelle.

“That’s bullshit. Tonnes of people are scared of operations, but—“

“Hospital protocol is clear. If the patient refuses to undergo a procedure, we will not force them,” said Estelle. “But you are alright with physical examinations, physical tests and being held here?”

“Although you don’t have a choice. That thing you have is illegal, and Zaphias law mandates you have to be kept here until we trace its source,” muttered Rita.

Raven nodded. “Sure.”

“Great! Then we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Rita crossed her arms. “You sure we can’t do anything today?”

“I have to be present during your initial examinations, and I have an operation scheduled in a bit.” Estelle walked out of the room, and Rita followed. When the door closed behind her she lowered her voice.

“Don’t do anything reckless. The higher ups reported this to Flynn Scifo, and he wants us to get to the bottom of this.”

“What, he thinks it’s related to the recent allegations of misconduct and corruption in the previous government?” Rita wasn’t overly fond of Flynn poking his nose into all the cases at the hospital. Patient confidentiality be damned—it was a pain to have to gather up the relevant medical records and simplify them for these idiot officials.

“Rita, it’s important. It concerns the safety of the people of Zaphias, especially if the former government was conducting illegal experimentation on citizens. We should be doing whatever we can to help.”

The thought of human experimentation hadn’t occurred to her. The revolution was supposed to have stopped all that nonsense. She kicked herself mentally for having thought that Raven had perhaps even voluntarily gone into this for money or something.

“I guess.” Rita sighed heavily. “Why does it always have to be human experiments? There are animals for this sort of thing. It just… messes everything up when you bring humans into it. It….it’s a pain, and there’s investigations, and…and…”

“It’s downright awful, and goes against every fibre of your moral being?” added Estelle.

Rita closed her eyes. “It does.”

 

 

Rita started the tests with a simple questionnaire designed by Flynn Scifo to determine the sort of legal issue at hand, namely how the illegal machinery obtained, whether it was with the victim’s consent, and who the source was. Unfortunately Raven’s answers were vague, and mostly indicated that he was unwilling to divulge anything. She tossed the clipboard to Estelle, who barely managed to catch it.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer any of these questions,” said Raven, with a faint smile.

“One, you’re not sorry. Two, I don’t really care, because if you don’t want to say, that’s your business.” Rita gently led Raven by the arm from the chair to the treadmill. ‘My concern is how well your heart works, and how we can fix any existing problems.”

As Rita started the treadmill and monitored his heart rate accordingly, she noticed Estelle studying what little Raven had mentioned. They both knew that his silence spoke volumes enough, and that Flynn would probably figure out where it all came from. With the data Rita could obtain from Raven’s performance, it would give a pretty good indication of how much funding and research went into it. Within Zaphias, there weren’t that many criminals with that many resources at hand.

By the end of the day, Raven was winded. “I thought….hospitals….weren’t….supposed to torture people…,” he managed, between breaths. He was doubled over on the bench, but according to his heart rate, it was almost back to its resting rate barely a few minutes after he’d stopped.

“This is hardly torture,” scoffed Rita, studying her notes. His performance was about 90% that of a generally fit person, from cardiac output. She would have to wait for the lab tests to return to check for other abnormalities, but it was astounding for a complete heart replacement.

It was almost like magic.

“I’m an old man, do you expect me to be able to catch up with you young’uns so easily?” he gasped.

Rita raised an eyebrow. “…are you _pouting_.”

“Maybe.” Raven took a deep breath and then slowly let it out. His breathing rate was almost back to normal. He was certainly still very fit for an alleged _old man_ , and his muscle tone indicated he had been active for a long time, and likely only stopped months ago.

Rita continued the tests in the following days, with various exercises. He performed surprisingly well in all of them. Rita noted how the thing in his chest glowed brighter as he exerted himself more. She also noted the way his muscles moved as he lifted weights, or how they flexed as he pulled himself up on the bars, or how aesthetically pleasant the colour of his darkish brown skin was….

Damned hormones.

Raven caught her staring once, and he laughed a little. She’d felt her cheeks flare up, and it didn’t help that he waggled his eyebrows and said, “Enjoying the view?” She’d almost thrown her clipboard at him then, but instead she settled for throwing a towel at him. Which was a slightly better response.

It soon felt like a ritual, going to see Raven every day, and she found himself almost enjoying working with him. Sure, he wouldn’t answer the questions she asked on his heart, but he liked to ask her about herself. Why she enjoyed studying machines and the human body, how she’d gotten into it. At first she’d hated it, but then she found herself answering him and talking to him about her life. How she’d lost her parents at a young age, and discovered her love for machines. How the war brought about a demand for engineers, and how she’d stumbled upon machines that replaced human organs. She’d fallen in love with the science of it then, she said.

Of course, at that, his eyes had clouded over. She felt a pang of guilt at having brought up something that was obviously painful, but hey, he’d asked. They continued the rest of the day in awkward silence, but the next day he was back to his usual cheery self.

Until the eighth day, when Alexei came to visit.

Rita was heading up to Raven’s room at her usual time in the late morning, when she saw Estelle standing outside the room on her phone.

“How could you let this happen?” demanded Estelle, who kept her voice down while sounding like she very much wanted to scream. Rita had almost never seen Estelle like this. Estelle looked at her with burning green eyes.

“Who is it?” Rita mouthed at her.

“Flynn,” came the reply. Estelle clutched the phone to her ear for a long while, and Rita heard Flynn going on and on about something. She tapped her card for entry. It flashed red, and the door remained locked.

“What the hell is on with this thing,” muttered Rita, tapping again.

“Fine. I’ll keep you updated,” growled Estelle to Flynn, hanging up. She then glared at the door. “It’s no use. It’s been locked from the inside by higher administrative access.”

“Aren’t you the head of this operation?”

“It’s the Defence Minister, Alexei. He ordered full privacy when he went in.”

Rita blinked. “Alexei. That sounds familiar.”

Estelle shook her head. “I can’t believe he didn’t get ousted during the rebellion.”

“The army still has some crazy dedication to that guy. Besides, nothing got proved against him,” said Rita. Alexei, Alexei…why did that name sound so familiar?

Just then, the door clicked, and Rita felt the urge to leap back and brandish something sharp. The door opened, and a tall, silver-haired man strode out. It wasn’t just his height that was imposing—his very air demanded respect and commanded power.

Rita remembered.

“Dr Rita Mordio,” he greeted, in a voice that could almost be mistaken for friendliness.

“Mr Alexei Dinoia,” said Rita, straining her neck to look up at him. “What brings you here?”

“Well, I came to visit my old friend Raven.” His eyes narrowed at her. “So you’re working on his case? I thought we had you in research.”

“Uh.” Her eyes darted to Estelle.

“She’s helping me with Raven’s case. As you know, his condition requires…special knowledge,” said Estelle quickly. “If you’d excuse us, we really should—“

“Rita Mordio,” said Alexei, as though pronouncing judgement. Rita looked at him, daring to lift her chin even higher. Instead he just shook his head. “Well. Best of luck…although since it’s you, you won’t need luck, won’t you?”

“No, I won’t,” said Rita.

He gave a curt nod and frown, before striding away. Once he was out of sight, Estelle rushed into the room. “Raven?”

There was no response, and the room was dark with the blinds drawn. Rita squinted into the dimness. “Raven?” she called, flicking on the lights.

And just as she did, there was a bright spark of red and white from the bed, a cry, and the lights flickered off.

 

 

The next few minutes were a blur.

Rita hadn’t been in clinical practice for quite a while now, but muscle memory spurred her to start chest compressions. Would it work with a mechanical heart? Was there any remnant of the original muscle left? She dimly remembered Estelle gently pushing her away as she readied the defibrillator, and Rita stood there numbly for a few wasted moments before turning to the machines. It was then that she realised the cause of the problem.

“Clear!” shouted Estelle.

With shaking hands, she held up the ripped wires from the nearby heart rate monitor, looking at the exposed wires. She turned to see Raven’s hands, seeing the bright red stripes across his hands, evidence that he had brutally torn the rubber covering of the wires.

Raven gasped, eyes fluttering open.

Rita closed her eyes. He’d tried to kill himself.

 

She didn’t mention anything about the ripped wires, but she figured that Estelle would have known about it anyway. Rita wondered what the hospital’s policy was on preserving the life of someone suicidal.

Normally, her response to the suicidal types would have been to dismiss it. “If they want to die so bad, what’s the point of stopping them?” Rita had said once.

“No one really wants to die. They just _think_ they want to die.” Estelle had looked down with tired eyes, eyes that had seen too much. “The ones I manage to save…they are usually thankful. They regret even having tried.” She didn’t mention the cases where they were upset about being saved. Rita didn’t need her to. She remembered the phone calls received from Estelle where the conversation was nothing but tears and sobbing.

No, there was something terribly wrong about this situation. Too many important people were involved. Was this just a case of PTSD? Why was Alexei involved?

“Why do I even care?” Rita asked her coffee mug, but it had no answer.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

It was absolutely terrifying that life went on as though that traumatic suicidal attempt had not happened. Raven was continuously monitored to make sure that no such incidents occurred, again, but in terms of his behaviour and mood he seemed to be perfectly fine.

Rita wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him violently, screaming at him to just tell her what Alexei had said and why he was doing this. Or perhaps just to beg him to let her cut him open and see what that monstrosity in him was.

But instead, in a remarkable show of self-control, she opted to continue working as per normal. In the first few days after that attempt, she kept conversation to a bare minimum. She couldn’t find it in herself to say anything that wouldn’t have come out as an emotional choked sob. Instead, Raven took the initiative and would talk. He seemed to be able to find anything to talk about.

“So I managed ta shuffle down to see the café. Accompanied by a nurse of course. Don’t worry yer pretty lil’ head. I jus’ wanted a coffee. And then, I thought that barista was a hot chick! Imagine my surprise when he turns and it’s a dude! With a really low voice! I lost my desire for coffee at that exact moment.”

“The doctor with the pink hair is really cute. Now now, don’t try an’ hit me with that clipboard, I meant she’d real sweet. She brought me coffee personally. Maybe because that barista I thought was a chick now wansta murder me on sight because I wolf whistled at him. That was before I knew he was a, yknow, he.”

“I used to like archery. Dyou do archery? You should. It’s really fun. Trains yer eyes and muscles and things. Well, then again, maybe you don’t want big bulky arms. Not to say it wouldn’t suit ya, Rita. You’d look pretty, muscles or no.”

Finding nothing wrong, Rita decided to bring him out on walks in the hospital garden. The garden was an open-air balcony converted to a lush miniature forest on the same floor as the psychiatric ward. There were tall glass walls on every side, of course. Rita wasn’t sure how certain she could be that Raven wasn’t going to hurl himself through the glass to a 43 storey fall, but the fresh air and change of scenery wouldn’t do him any harm.

To her relief, he was content to sit on the bench beside the fountain through the afternoon. She’d eyed the fountain suspiciously, but he had smiled.

“Don’t worry, the heart is waterproof. It wouldn’t make a good heart if it were leaky. And I wouldn’t have been able ta shower!”

“I doubt the person who did that to you would have cared whether you could shower or not,” she said, and his eyes darkened. She kicked herself mentally, and it must have shown on her face.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, for the umpteenth time since the incident.

“You’re my case, and I don’t like my cases dying on me,” she said. He grinned.

“Well, I’ll try not to disappoint you.”

They sat there, watching a nearby sparrow leaping from branch to branch in a nearby tree.

“Why ‘Raven’?” Rita muttered, without thinking.

Raven didn’t say anything for a long time, and then he let out a sudden bark of laughter. It startled the sparrow and it flew away. “I thought you’d meant ya were asking me why I tried to kill myself.”

“If you’d answer that, that would be great too,” she mumbled.

Raven laughed again. “Yer the bluntest doctor I’ve ever met.” He looked up at the sky. “Because when I woke up after my sleep of death, I was in the worst pain ever, and I wanted nothing more than to return back to hell.”

“Ravens are smart birds,” Rita remarked.

“Smart birds. Free birds, without many predators. Birds that like to play.” His smile dropped completely as he stared at his bare feet. “They’re also considered bad luck in some cultures. “

Rita hugged her knees. “You’re not bad luck.”

He snorted. “I’m pretty sure the only attribute of ravens I accumulated was that last bit.”

She reminded herself to watch her words around him.

 

 

The next day Rita brought him coffee, with double sugars and no cream, just how he liked it. They sat in the garden, and she told him about herself. How she’d skipped so many grades in school, while on scholarship by Zaphias University because she’d shown so much potential right after the war. Her brief stint as a medical doctor, which ended quickly as she’d leapt gratefully into research when the university invited her to join the cardiology research team. She recounted her brief experiences with teaching.

“No one was particularly fond of a professor at least three years younger than them.”

Raven had the gall to smirk and ask if it was more due to her tendency to throw chalk at their heads. She hadn’t the heart to say that they didn’t use chalk, and instead she’d thrown pens at them with deadly accuracy.

He seemed very interested in learning about her past, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy that session.

She reminded herself that patients with depression tended to exhibit more empathy and show more care for others.

 

 

The day after, she taught him to dance. She’d brought a portable music player, and when she loaded up songs from the pre-war era, his eyes had lit up and he’d given the most genuine smile she’d ever seen.

It was nothing difficult. She remembered the steps as though the last time she danced wasn’t over five years ago. She coached him through a simple jig, and he was a quick learner. At the end of it, he was breathing heavily from the slight exertion. It was simple exercise, a good way to get him back to health after his brush with death.

When her time was up, she turned the music player off, and he’d looked so sad that she decided to leave it with him. She didn’t even think of how it would have been risky to leave an electronic device with him.

“It would be risky to leave a tech-y thing with me,” he said, with a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Rita looked at it, grasped firmly in his two hands.

“If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility,” she said gravely.

His eyes welled up with tears, and before she could respond, he had her in a firm hug.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

She reminded herself that she was just his doctor.

 

 

“For someone so smart, you are _so_ in denial,” said Yuri, with the biggest shit-eating grin ever.

“It’s part of treatment, idiot,” she retorted, taking the two cups of coffee, one for herself and another for Raven.

“Uh huh. And the moon is made of cheese.” He glanced around, and slipped her a folded piece of paper from his sleeve. “Karol couldn’t find much, but he hopes this is enough.”

“Thank him for me,” she replied, sticking it into her labcoat pocket. As she turned to go, Yuri smiled.

“Nice perfume you’ve started wearing, by the way.”

She couldn’t be bothered to retort.

 

 

“Alexei isn’t telling Flynn anything about Raven. There’s nothing in Flynn’s accessible files on Raven, either.” Estelle slunk over Rita’s table, and Rita hurriedly moved piles of paper from her desk to one of the interns’ desks. “They tried to replace me with another doctor on this case. Said something about me getting too involved. We have to do all we can soon.”

“Karol’s inside contacts claim that Alexei has somewhat of a secret personal force within the military. Relics from the war, it would seem. More importantly,” Rita brandished Karol’s newspaper clipping. “Alexei definitely isn’t just a musclehead.”

Estelle looked up and grabbed the paper. “Youngest engineer from Zaphias Uni?” She slammed it on the desk with uncharacteristic anger. “You don’t think…”

Rita pinched the bridge of her nose. “Of course I do. That bastard will pay.”

 

 

It had been two months since the incident now.

Estelle had been assigned more shifts at other wards, meaning that it was rare for her to be able to personally monitor Rita’s progress with Raven. She was still officially his doctor, but other wards needed her more, so she was told. Rita was not under the scheduling of the hospital and hence was free to do whatever she wanted. Estelle watched as Rita adjusted Raven’s arm to the right height for that particular dance move. At Rita’s nod, Estelle turned on the music again. It was a catchy and moderately fast tune, and Raven’s brow seemed to be in a perpetual furrow as he tried to remember the moves and match them to the tune.

“One and two and three and go!” Rita spun sharply, flicking out her hand.

“Twist, and flick.”

Another spin, a tiny leap.

“Five and six, seven, eight, turn, sweep, hold it…”

Estelle hid her smirk as Rita easily flowed with the music. Raven’s eyes were fixed on her, and though his moves paled in comparison to Rita’s in terms of grace, it was still quite impressive.

Rita’s head dropped, bending right over with her hand brushing the floor gently. Raven’s eyes rested easily on her butt, and Estelle blinked.

Oh.

She wondered how long that had been going on for.

“Up, spin, and done!” Rita shouted triumphantly with a proud smile. Breathing a little heavier than usual, she spun around to face Raven. “Did you get all that?”

“I think yer gonna have to do that again,” he said, sounding a little breathless.

Estelle stood up, clapping. “That was amazing, Rita! But aren’t you pushing our patient a bit too much? Look, his face is all red.”

Raven looked at Estelle. She decidedly did not meet his eyes.

“Why not a slower dance? I remember the dance you did for the medical school talent showcase. That one was good.”

Rita flushed red. “That was—“ She’d done it with some boy in her class who had also known some dance, and the intimacy of the dance had not occurred to her until everyone had asked her after that if they were dating. Ever since then, she’d never been able to make eye contact with her former dance partner.

“Something slower might be a good idea,” said Raven, smiling. Rita swallowed thickly. Estelle beamed at Rita.

“O-okay. Well, that one involves…two people.” Rita stepped close to Raven, and he raised an eyebrow. He didn’t step back, though.

Rita hardly dared to breathe, and tried to think of the situation as objectively as she could. She laced her fingers with his coarse and roughened fingers, and with her other hand put his hand on her hip. Then she placed her hand on his shoulder. “So we start off like this.”

Estelle discreetly slipped back into the hospital building for her next shift. She was so proud of her young friend, and she scuttled off to the ward which she was assigned to.

 

 

 

Rita collapsed into bed that night, buried her face in her pillow. Thoughts of the dancing session from the day kept resurfacing, and she kept thinking about his brilliant blue eyes, his strong hands, and how nice it had been to be so close to him.

Ugh, emotions. She wanted to jump off a building at the thought.

She wasn’t sure whether to thank Estelle or poison her coffee.

 

 

The next day, Rita arrived at Raven’s room ten minutes before their meeting was scheduled. Raven’s eyes looked somewhat bloodshot and quite tired, and Rita wondered what had kept him up all night. Not that she was doing much better, but then, eye bags were a permanent feature on her face.

Once again in the garden, Rita wanted to resume the fast dance, but instead, Raven had put on the song for their slow and intimate dance. (Did she just think “their”? She was definitely a lost cause.)

“W-why did you pick that song?” she stuttered, turning faintly red.

“I…I think I like this song better,” he said, almost shyly. He stepped towards her and took her by the hand. “I practiced. Last night.”

“Well. I-I’m glad you’re a conscientious student,” she muttered, wondering how red her face was right then.

As they laced their fingers together, he whispered. “I owe you an explanation, and I think I’m willing to tell you everything.”

She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but then the music started, and with it, the dance. She looked him in the eyes, but put her hand on his shoulder, and their bodies seemed pressed together far too close, and yet not close enough. They swayed side to side, then stepped forward and back, in time to the music. As she’d taught yesterday, he stepped away, and she felt a sense of disappointment as she couldn’t feel the warmth from his body. He pulled her gently toward him, and she released his hand and spun into his other arm, where his arm encircled her waist. He bent over, supporting her weight as she was dipped down low.

Her breathing stopped as his face moved close to hers, and his brilliant blue eyes stared straight into her soul. She grabbed his shoulders, and he pulled her up again and she spun away from him. He caught her by the wrist, and she looked up sharply. That wasn’t part of the dance.

He then pulled her towards him, and before she could respond, she felt his warm lips on hers.

Oh.

She hadn’t dated before, or was ever really interested in boys. In her class, they had always been older than her. Her competitive streak made her see them more as academic rivals rather than romantic interests. They had more often than not been intimidated by her. Rita generally found it difficult to establish a functional relationship with anyone as a whole, and even she found it a miracle that she had found friends in Estelle, Yuri and (in a certain way) Karol.

These thoughts zipped through her highly intelligent brain as she realised she was kissing Raven back. She pushed away from him gently in shock, her arms wrapped around his neck. Raven was looking at her with wide eyes.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—“ he started, pushing her gently away, but then he yelled as he doubled over, clutching at his chest.

“Raven!” she screamed, reaching forward to grab his shoulder, but then Raven suddenly spun around, and his fingers were around her throat.

She gasped for air, grasping weakly at his fingers. As her vision faded to black, she saw his horrified expression. She tried to reach forward, touch his face and tell him she forgave him.

And then she felt nothing.

 

 

“You weak fool!” Alexei’s voice cut through her consciousness. She heard Raven cry out in a strangled voice.

 _No, stop_ , she wanted to shout, but her throat hurt too much. She was lying on her back on the cold stone path of the garden. She turned her head, only to see Raven collapse to the ground, clutching at his chest. Suddenly she was grabbed by the collar by Alexei himself.

“Useless. Absolutely useless. After what I did for you, giving you your life back, you can’t even bring yourself to kill this weak girl.” Alexei shook his head. “She is the biggest danger, not just to me, but also to _you_ , Schwann. She could easily have figured out _every, little thing_ about your blastia heart. Do you know what would have happened then? You’d be _dead_ , without me to maintain it. And do you think they’d let you live, after what you’ve done?”

“You…” Raven gasped. “You made me...kill them. It..wasn’t me.”

Alexei chuckled darkly, shaking his head. “I told you to end your life with dignity, to destroy the evidence with your own hands. But even then, you were much too pathetic to do that.”

Rita’s eyes widened. “How could you…”

Alexei threw her to the ground, and she cried out as her back hit the pebbles of the ground. Alexei then pulled out a device, pushing a button on it. Raven’s back arched at a painfully sharp angle, and he let out a blood curdling scream. “You were about to tell her everything, weren’t you? Did you think I wouldn’t know?” He walked right over, grabbing Raven by the hair, and smiled. Lowering his mouth to Raven’s ear, he said, “I know everything.”

Rita tried to push herself upright. “Let…him…go,” she said between gritted teeth.

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing around with little girls? She’s half your age, you old dog.” Alexei’s casual, almost friendly teasing voice made Rita want to run over to him and scratch his eyes out, if only she could. “Now, maybe it would only be poetic for you to be the one to end her life.” He straightened, and pressed a series of buttons on the device. Raven crumpled to the ground, then pushed himself upright.

“Raven?” she croaked.

His blue eyes seemed to have clouded over, and he walked over to her.

“I did try to push you girls away from him gently, really I did. But that doctor, Estellise, is _really_ too persistent,” said Alexei with a smile.

Raven grabbed her by the throat.

Alexei turned to leave. “I can’t be at the scene of the crime, so excuse me, Dr Mordio. We’ll never meet again.”

“Please,” she whispered, tears leaking out from her eyes. “Fight…it…”

A tear dropped from Raven’s eye. The pressure around her neck seemed to reduce. “Ri…ta…”

 “Rita!” Estelle’s voice rang out. “Get away from her!”

Raven’s hand fell away from her neck, and Rita saw Raven crumple, Estelle standing above them with a syringe in her hand. Estelle dropped to her knees beside Rita. “Stay with me, Rita. C’mon, wake up…”

Rita tried. She really did.

 

 

Rita opened her eyes.

“Rita! You’re awake!”

Rita tried to talk, but just managed to croak. Estelle helped Rita sit up and propped some pillows behind her back, while Karol poured her a glass of water.

“We were worried about you,” said Karol, handing her the glass. “You’ve been out for a whole day already.”

“Where’s Raven?” she managed to croak out.

Estelle shook her head. “It seems after I knocked him out he hasn’t been conscious at all. Why would you even care? He was trying to kill you!”

Rita shook her head, and immediately set to explaining everything to the best of her abilities. Estelle and Karol stared at her in complete shock.

“Alexei? But...” Karol shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. If not for the fact that I know you never joke about things, I wouldn’t believe you for a second.”

“It’s not that much of a surprise, seeing as we already know Alexei has his own secret force in the military,” reminded Estelle.

Karol shook his head even more vehemently. “But this is Alexei we’re talking about. He’s a war hero, and the Minister of Defence in Zaphias. What you’re saying is practically treason.”

“Alexei isn’t a god, as much as he apparently likes playing as one,” retorted Rita. “I can retrieve evidence if I investigate Raven’s heart.”

Estelle raised an eyebrow. “Even if he’s unconscious, that’s unethical.”

“Alexei has the power to shock him and control him via that _thing_. There’s only two ways to get Alexei in trouble—from Raven’s confession, or from the evidence in Raven’s chest,” explained Rita. “Alexei tried to destroy the evidence by getting Raven to kill himself and short circuit the heart, because if Alexei kills Raven himself, the heart might still be salvageable. Clearly Alexei didn’t program the heart to become kind of explosive device that would wipe out all traces of itself.” She really hoped that it was because Alexei hadn’t predicted that his experiments would come to light, and less a case of him trusting that Raven would be willing to do anything he said.

She really wanted to murder Alexei herself.

“Raven had incentive for us not to let us find the evidence earlier because Alexei could easily frame Raven for whatever war crimes he forced him to do during the Great War if we found the experiments, and possibly shift the blame to someone else,” Rita managed to say, choking down her disgust at Alexei.

“So how are we supposed to prove that Alexei was in charge of this whole thing?” asked Karol. “How in the world could anything you find implicate Alexei directly?”

Rita pursed her lips. “How’s that thieves’ guild you and Yuri formed going along?”

Karol stared at her. “No way.”

 

 

“Um, yes way?”

Karol’s forehead hit the tabletop hard enough for Estelle’s mug of coffee to jump. “Yuri, nooooooo, I’d trusted youuuuu.”

Estelle’s eyes widened. “Really? You’ll do it?”

“Hell yeah. I always thought Alexei was a good guy, but if what you’re saying’s right, then we gotta kick his ass for what he did to Rita’s boyfriend, right?” Yuri cracked his knuckles, and Estelle quickly shook her head.

“No! We can’t …well, you can’t touch him! We have to let him be tried fair and square in the courts.”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “Like any court in Zaphias is going to convict that guy. Look, the only way we’re going to be able to get any sort of justice for the old man and any other victims like him is if we kill that asshole.”

“No, Yuri. No killing,” said Karol, firmly. “They can’t deny it, not in the face of proper evidence.”

Yuri sighed. “Fine.” Estelle lit up, and Yuri put up a hand. “But, if we get through this, I want some kind of payment.”

Estelle blinked. “I’ll do my best?”

Yuri grinned. “If we do this, I’d like to take you out on a date.”

Estelle’s jaw dropped.

 

 

The operating room was quiet. There was no heart rate monitor, no nurses. This had to be done in complete secrecy.

Rita stood alone.

She looked at the scalpel in her hand. All her life, she’d managed to objectively cut into human flesh, having numbed her mind a long time ago that she was cutting into living human beings. It never seemed like a big deal.

She realised that it was quite different having to cut into someone you harboured feelings for.

“Dammit, Rita. You’re getting soft in your old age,” she muttered. She touched Raven’s bare chest, right above where it glowed bright through brutal scars that blossomed out over the mechanical monstrosity.

There was no way of removing it without killing him, neither was there a way for her to guarantee his safety as she probed around in his chest. But there was no way this could go on forever, not while he was at the mercy of Alexei.

She checked that the anaesthetic she used was sufficient, for about the sixteenth time in the past fifteen minutes. She held out the scalpel again.

She reminded herself that crying is forbidden in the operating room. It blurs one’s vision, and compromises infection control.

 

 

 

“How are we supposed to know which of these are the designs for a damned heart? I know absolutely _shit_ about hearts and machines,” hissed Yuri, tossing booklet after booklet of engineering designs behind him.

“Look, how was anyone supposed to figure out that Alexei would be a complete nerd who keeps everything he ever made since forty years ago?” retorted Karol, searching another bookcase.

Yuri sighed, tossing everything roughly back into the box he’d found those booklets in. “Okay, let’s think. If I were a crazy madman genius scientist engineer guy, and I did a whole bunch of evil experiments on soldiers and used them to kill a whole bunch of people, _and_ somehow was stupid enough to keep the blueprints, where would I keep them?”

Karol stopped scanning the bookshelves and turned to Yuri. “Not in my bookshelf.”

Yuri turned and looked around the room. There was a portrait of Alexei himself between the bookshelves.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, boss?” said Yuri, glancing at the portrait.

“Just move that portrait already!”

Yuri grabbed the two sides of the frame and lifted it off the nail. Lo and behold, there was a wall safe right behind the portrait.

Yuri set the frame on the ground and shook his head. “Typical villain. Alright, Karol. Safecracking is your thing.”

 

 

Rita dropped the transceiver into the kidney dish. She poked at it with bloodied forceps. It was quite astounding that something so small and fragile-looking was capable of receiving signals from afar.

She’d found the shocking device as well, but it was powered by the movement of blood through the valves through converting kinetic energy such that there was no way for her to remove it without damaging the structure of the mechanical heart.

She glanced at Raven’s peaceful, sleeping face. She hoped Yuri and Karol had done their work.

 

 

 

“Blastia Self-Regulatory Cardiac Muscle Replacement Model 2.0—Subject: Schwann Oltorain. By Alexei Dinoia.” Yuri snorted. “Guess he really can’t resist signing his name really big on things he’s proud of.”

“Okay let’s get the hell outta here before we get caught,” hissed Karol.

 

 

The man once known as Schwann Oltorain didn’t expect nice things to come into his life. First he’d joined the army thinking it was a quick way to earn a decent living. Too bad he’d been too much of an idiot to realise that when the army’s actively recruiting, there’s real danger involved.

Then he’d died. That hadn’t been fun. Coming alive again was even worse, because he was made Alexei’s slave. There were many advantages to having one’s own undead army. There was no fear of death. There was fear of pain, which Alexei invoked at his every whim. Death would have been welcome. They could push themselves harder than most ordinary soldiers, and that made them ideal soldiers for covert missions.

He would never have pegged himself as an assassin, once upon a time. Yet now all he saw himself as was a murderer.

Yeager had already been a murderer before that, so he never felt much kinship with his fellow slave under Alexei. Then the war was over, and Schwann was useless. He was ‘allowed’ his freedom, but of course, if he had ever dared to try and run away, or reveal Alexei’s experiments…

He took his chances and ran.

Alexei’s regular maintenance, he learned, was apparently the only thing keeping him from excruciating discomfort on a daily basis after at least a year without them. Not that anyone could have figured that out while under Alexei’s hold, with the frequency at which he unleashed his torture on them. One would have thought that a shiny new heart would be a blessing. But Schwann had never had nice things. Why should Raven?

Eventually Raven had given up, tried to end it all.

Then he met Rita.

Rita was a nice _person_ , and he was stupid to think that he could have her. Now Alexei had killed her.

No.

Now _Raven_ had been the one who killed her. Or maybe it was Schwann. Maybe there wasn’t any difference, and he would always be Schwann, the slave of Alexei.

“He’s…crying?”

“Does that mean he’s awake?”

And then.

“Raven?”

An angel’s voice.

Maybe he was finally dead.

His eyes slowly opened.

“Oh, thank goodness.”

Arms wrapped around him. A familiar scent. Rita. She was alive.

 

 

 

Raven shook his head as Estelle and Rita told him everything that had taken place within the past few weeks—the evidence of Schwann Oltorain as a victim of human experimentation, the evidence retrieved from the Dinoia mansion and from Raven’s heart itself. Yuri and Estelle’s friend, Flynn Scifo, who was a rising leader within the military helped in the presenting of the case to the High Court, even going so far as to demonstrate that the device Alexei carried on his person triggered the device that had been retrieved from one of his victims’ own bodies.

“Fortunately, you were out for the duration of the trial, but the evidence we’d gathered was more than sufficient to lock him away for a long time,” said Rita, with a smile. Ever since Raven had awoken, she had not let go of his hand. He couldn’t take his own eyes off her. He still couldn’t believe that she would have gone so far for his sake.

“Karol’s position in the state newspaper has resulted in the case being widely published across the country, so the public’s disapproval has been vital in increasing the focus on the government’s corruption and the importance of being aware of our leaders’ moralities...or, in this case, lack thereof,” added Estelle. She looked at Rita and Raven’s lovestruck expressions and sighed. She made a flimsy excuse and bade her farewells, but it didn’t matter being neither of them paid her any attention.

Oh well. It was about time for her date with a certain thief/barista.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of the plot!   
> I thought it would be poetic justice for Estelle to be the one to knock out Raven, considering what happens in the game HURHUR.   
> Also yes I know Brave Vesperia would not have been the thieves' guild but they gotta do something. They'll probably steal from the rich and give to the poor, thanks to Yuri's need to stir up shit and also help society...as a whole. Hey, it does actually help with equity issues. Besides, Karol being the top journalist, he's gotta get his sources from somewhere.
> 
> I wrote 5k of the words over a few weeks...and then i wrote the remaining 5k literally today. HAHAHAHA.


	3. Coda

Raven woke up to the sound of metal against metal. He blinked slowly, trying to clear out the sleep from his eyes.

“Oh, you’re awake,” said Rita, cheerfully, without looking up from whatever she was doing on his heart. She was holding a screwdriver, and…something else relatively sinister.

“You know, love, most people don’t expect literal tampering of hearts in a romantic relationship,” Raven said, yawning as he reached over to stroke her hair. He’d grown used to falling asleep with her in his arms but waking to her essentially conducting open heart surgery in their bed despite both of them being in various states of undress.

She’d massively improved the structure of the heart as a whole, improving its function and goodness knows what else. All he knew was that now it didn’t seem to hurt much, and felt more or less like a normal heart. Who would have guessed that he would remember what a normal heart felt like after almost twenty years of not having one?

Rita slid the panel shut. She’d installed one for easy access to the inner workings of the machinery. “I just thought it might need some fine tuning.” She twisted to put her tools on the bedside table, allowing him a fine view of her bare ass peeking out from her his shirt, which looked _so_ much better on her than it did on him. As she turned back to face him he settled his arms around her and cupped her ass in his hands. She leaned against him and giggled as he kissed her neck.

“Well, I think I should thank my doctor for her services,” he mumbled against her skin, and he grinned as he felt her shiver.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she murmured, pulling him down on top of her.

 

 He let her rest while he got up and made them both coffee. By the time she would wake up, the coffee would be cold, and she would gulp it down in seconds before rushing out of the house to get to work on time. Raven still wasn’t supposed to exert himself, so he stayed home, did some light exercise, cooked dinner, cleaned the house, whatever needed doing. He’d built all the furniture in the house, and Estelle had sighed heavily and said something about “moderate work” not involving felling trees.

She needn’t have worried. He’d just bought the wood from a lumberjack and walked ten kilometres carrying most of it himself.

All the same, Raven couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy. Even when Rita came home, fuming about some idiot intern who couldn’t distinguish between systole and diastole in her cardiac models, he could see nothing but beauty in her passion, in those brilliant green eyes of hers. When she would spend hours explaining some latest invention she’d come up with that he barely understood, she was the most gorgeous woman in the world.

Yuri and Estelle often joked that they acted like newlyweds despite having been married for five years. Raven thought that was a ridiculous thing to say, considering the way they couldn’t take their eyes off each other after two years of marriage.

As Raven measured out the coffee grounds, he thought about the nightmare he’d had the night before. It was a recollection of one of the many murders he’d committed. How the person had cried, begged for mercy, but Alexei’s control made him stamp down his sympathy. The man may have been an enemy of Zaphias, but the way he was taken down was without honour, and an injustice to humanity. But when Raven woke up, hands darting up to ward off the ghost who wasn’t there, Rita’s arm across his chest kept him grounded. He was safe, and the world was safe from him and Alexei.

Arms reached around him, and he smiled. “You’re up early,” he said, turning on the coffee machine.

“I missed you,” Rita mumbled so softly into his back that he could barely hear it.

But he heard it all the same.

“Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay that was a really short chapter. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
